This title could of just as easily been titled songs of the moment but for right now there are two hip-hop songs that I cannot stop listening to. One of them is a few months old and the other is brand spanking new. The older of the songs is Akon’s most recent single “Beautiful.” This song is such an amazing club anthem and is in heavy rotation within that circuit. If I were at a party over the past few weekend this would be the song I would want to hear. An interesting element to this song is that the full version lasts for just over five minutes. As Billy Joel said “If you’re gonna have a hit, tou gotta make it fit, so they cut it down to 3:05.” It is a rarity for a hip-song to be this long and still receive substantial radio airplay. What really makes [...] Continue...

Hello everyone, it has been a few days since my last post and I wanted to check in. This week I will be conducting an interview with Cake, so if you have any questions you would like answered, please email me them as soon as possible. I also have an interview with Cobra Starship coming up in the next few weeks, so again if you have any questions for that up and coming band please let me know. Also this week, I was hired as both the Entertainment Editor for The Informer (University of Hartford’s School Paper) and as the Concert Chair for Campus Activities Team. Needless to say this was a very busy week and weekend. I hope that everybody had a fantastic Easter and Passover and that you’re all as excited as I am for a fantastic Spring and Summer of music! Continue...

I have a confession to make. Although my Song of the Week feature always comes out on Thursdays, this weeks was decided much earlier in the week. In fact, it might of even been decided last week. Regardless, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pick this song as my song of the week while it was still fresh in my head. For those of you who do not know, Jai Ho was one of the songs from the amazing “Slumdog Millionaire,” soundtrack. Of particular interest is 0% of this song is written in english. In that light, I don’t know what is being sung but that goes to further how well this song is actually written. The fact that I can have a song stuck in my head that I know none of the lyrics to is a testament to that. It’s blend of soothing strings and high energy [...] Continue...

The big announcement out of Apple’s headquarters this week was scaled pricing. Despite the fact that this is a really big deal and something that Apple fought vigorously against, it is not the biggest thing they released to the music world. In an ongoing effort to streamline and simplify the way consumers purchase music, iTunes along with The Fray announced the inclusion of an iTunes Pass into the iTunes Store. Yes, I just said iTunes three times in that sentence but this is a really cool idea that the super company will try to employ. The basic idea is similar to their “season passes,” for television shows. You get a certain number of tracks, some video and some audio with a certain number of “exclusive,” tracks available only through the pass. You will continue to receive exclusive released tracks from the band until the end date on the pass. For [...] Continue...

Here’s an interesting question. In a time when everyone is tightening up their belts and trying to cut down on spending it is understandable to not want to buy top tier tickets to any event. My issue is when you start comparing music to other forms of entertainment, specifically sports. A significant number of people I know would never pay more than about $30 to see a concert, whether it was their favorite band, or just a run of the mill show. For this example we will use the New York Mets because I have first hand knowledge of their ticket prices. The average Mets home ticket price is about $35 per seat, per game. Ticket prices go way up from there with some being as high as $300. Again for this example we are going to use the New York area and the month of June. during the month [...] Continue...

Anyone who knows me personally knows two things about my feelings towards festivals. First is that I don’t like the idea. I want to see the bands I want to see and can’t imagine truly finding a new band to listen to while fighting through massive crowds (the apparent reason people enjoy them is because they can see bands they want to see and discover some new ones). Second is that I’ve never actually been to one. There is something that might make me want to attend a festival. What if a festival created a lineup just for me? What if all the bands on the bill were ones that I either haven’t seen or want to see again? Well the All Points Festival held in Liberty State Park, right across from lower Manhattan, might just be for me. The lineup of artists that I haven’t seen before that I [...] Continue...

For many years bands have made similar noise come out of their instruments. Much of it sounded the same and if you grew up in the 90′s you know this all too well. We all remember 3 Doors Down, Third Eye Blind, The Goo Goo Dolls and Matchbox 20. These among others all grew up with a similar style and to this day very few bands (not from the 90′s) have copied this style. The artist I am introducing you to today hasn’t totally copied this style either, but they come close. Continue...

Once in a while you just have to kick it old school and this past weekends song can’t be much more old school. If there were a song of the weekend this would be it but that just gets complicated. In that light, Breakfast at Tiffany’s is my song of the week because for two entire days in Boston it was stuck in my head. The song is a great example of what 90′s songs were all about. There is a slow, building verse that breaks into a huge chorus with at least one incredible hook. Meeting all those criteria it is easy to see how a song like this can get stuck in ones head. Fitting right in with other 90′s one hit wonder bands such as Eagle Eye Cherry, Vertical Horizon or Nine Day’s, Deep Blue Something will be remembered for only one reason, this Audrey Hepburn inspired [...] Continue...

First reporting on this album a few weeks ago I wrote that upon my first run through I was hooked. The Urgency are from Brooklyn and other areas within the Northeast of the United States and you will learn a lot more about them as 2009 progresses. In this light I have decided that April’s album of the month should be this groups self titled first wide released album. This album is full of possible singles right from the start. So many of these songs could be thrown onto MTV and really catch fire. For a few weeks me and some friends sat around trying to determine who this band sounded like. We generated names from Foo Fighters to Fall Out Boy before deciding that they sounded most like Coheed and Cambria. Although I believe this is still a stretch it goes to show just how unique this bands pop/rock/alternative [...] Continue...